Movies
TV: SyFy Goes Back Into Dangerous Waters with ‘Lake Placid 3’, ‘Sharktopus’
Announced for the 2010-2011 season on SyFy are two water-based horror films. Going along with Red, the first of the Saturday night faity tales, you’ll also catch Roger Corman’s Sharktopus and Lake Placid 3, a sequel to the most watched Saturday Original Movie ever (Lake Placid 2). Inside you’ll find details on both those films and plenty more premiering later this year and early next.
Syfy Original Movie Highlights
Riverworld – Four hours, premieres Sunday, April 18, from 7-11PM (ET/PT)–Matt Ellman (Tahmoh Penikett/Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse) is an American war zone reporter, killed along with his fianceeJessie (Laura Vandervoort/Smallville) by a suicide bomber. They awaken separated in a mysterious world where everyone who has ever lived on Earth seems to have been “reborn” along the banks of a seemingly endless river. Determined to locate Jessie, Matt joins forces with a 13th century female samurai warrior Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen) and American novelist Sam “Mark Twain” Clemens (Mark Deklin). Produced by RHI Entertainment.
The Phantom — Four hours, premieres in June–Ryan Carnes (Desperate Housewives, Dr. Who) stars as The Phantom and his alter ego Chris Walker in this re-imagined version of the classic comic strip transported to present day. A favorite costumed hero for more than six decades, The Phantom relies on his wits, physical strength and skill with weapons instead of superhuman powers. Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet) guest stars in a villainous turn as Lithia, the head of an experimental mind control program. Also starring are Cameron Goodman as Chris Walker’s love interest, Renny, and Sandrine Holt (24,The L Word) as The Phantom’s trusted advisor Guran. Director: Paolo Barzman (The Last Templar). The Phantom is produced by Muse Entertainment and RHI Entertainment.
Saturday Original Movies:
MEGA PIRANHA–Premieres Saturday, April 10, at 9PM (ET/PT)–An unusual alliance tries to stop a mutant strain of giant ferocious piranhas that have escaped from the Amazon and are eating their way to Florida. Stars Barry Williams, Tiffany and Paul Logan.
MOTHMAN–Premieres Saturday, April 24, at 9PM (ET/PT)–The legendary West Virginia monster returns to exact revenge on five childhood friends who covered up an accidental killing. Stars Jewel Staite.
MONGOLIAN DEATH WORM–Premieres Saturday, May 8, at 9PM (ET/PT)–A treasure hunter who has been searching for a tomb containing Genghis Khan’s treasure teams with a humanitarian UN health worker to stop the Mongolian Death Worms, awakened by experimental oil drilling in the Mongolian desert. Stars Patrick Flannery and Victoria Pratt.
WITCHVILLE–Premieres Saturday, May 22, at 9PM (ET/PT)– This first Syfy production in China is a sweeping fantasy tale of a kingdom besieged by witches who are sucking the very life out of the land. Only the new King can save his people, but his mysterious connection to the Red Queen of the witches may be his undoing. Stars Luke Goss.
SHARKTOPUS–Genetically engineered as a stealth weapon, a shark/ocotopus hybrid escapes captivity and goes on a killing rampage on the beaches of Mexico. Stars Eric Roberts and Hector Jimenez.
RED–A descendant of Little Red Riding Hood brings her fiancé home to meet her family and tell him about the family business–they are werewolf hunters. When the fiancé is bitten by a werewolf, he finds himself the hunted. Stars Felicia Day, Kavan Smith and Stephen McHattie.
LAKE PLACID 3–In this sequel, a game warden, his wife and their young son move into their aunt’s cabin on Lake Placid, where the lonely boy starts feeding baby crocodiles he views as pets. Three years later, the crocs start looking at him and his family as their food. Stars Colin Ferguson.
STONEHENGE APOPCALYPSE–When the giant stones of Stonehenge begin to move and cataclysms occur all over the earth, only a fringe radio talk show host who’s an expert in UFOlogy figures out that the ancient monument is really alien technology. Stars Hill Harper, Misha Collins and Peter Wingfield.
THE LOST FUTURE–In a post-apocalyptic world, both humans and animals have devolved back to the Stone Age. But a small group of wise men knows there is knowledge in the mysterious artifacts called books. Now they have found a young man who knows how to read. If they can defeat the warlord who rules the city where the books are kept, the young man can help them defeat the disease that decimated the world and restart civilization. Stars Sean Bean.
SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE–An archeology professor unearths a dangerous relic, releasing a creature that can kill with her bone-splitting scream. Stars Lauren Holly and Lance Henriksen.
MORLOCKS–An experimental time machine opens a window into the future and mutated monsters (the Morlocks) use it to come back to the present and go on a murderous rampage. Stars David Hewlett (Stargate Atlantis).
8TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD–Sinbad searches for the golden head of the long lost Colossus of Rhodes and instead finds an island where the mythical Minotaur still rules, protecting a vast treasure. Sinbad and his crew have to battle the creature and its minions to get the treasure and save their own lives. Stars Manu Bennett.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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